DQS10 & DLS

I signed up to participate in another Doll Quilt Swap.  It is round 10 and I have been participating since round 4.  This is really the only swap I do anymore and it is the best.  I really enjoy the secrecy of it.  It is lots of fun to stalk my partner and learn what his/her likes are.  I hope I got it right with this quilt I made.

It is a mini version of this quilt I made last year.  I love the graphic simplicity of it and I got to play with solids which are a favorite of mine.  I see a lot more quilts with solids in my future.  I am still debating about how I am going to quilt it but when I figure it out I will make sure to show it to you when it is all done.

 

My socks are coming along wonderfully.  I was going to have a little rule for myself that I would try to work on my Autumn Haze afghan if I sat down to knit at home and my socks when I am out and about.  I threw that out the window as soon as I got into the groove of knitting this pattern.  I can’t put them down!

It isn’t too late to join Anita and I for our little Sock of the Month club.  Although I really should rename it to Sock of the Every Couple of Months club since we are making a pair every two months.  A very reachable goal so if you want to join us it isn’t too late.  We are working on these Diagonal Lace Socks until the end of March.  For April/May we are knitting Jagged.  And for June/July we are knitting Socks for His Nibs.  Should be interesting trying to knit during the Summer since historically it doesn’t happen much but this might be the thing that keeps me knitting when it’s hot.   

This is a fun and easy pattern and easy to memorize so I don’t have to look at the chart every 2 seconds.  I am crazy loving this yarn.  It is Heritage Paints in a beautiful red with bits of dark blue.  I have a bit of Heritage in my stash but this is my first time knitting with it and I love it.  I have always been a cuff down sock knitter because that is how I learned but buying this book got me comfortable knitting toe up socks and I really do love how you can make the most of your yarn when you knit toe up.  It is a lot easier to gauge when you will run out of yarn and at that point you are somewhere on the leg and can be done.  If that happens with cuff down socks you might not have enough yarn to get to the toe.  More than anything I like to be comfortable with different methods so that I will have the skills to knit any pattern I wish.  I am still working on collecting all those skills and enjoying the process!

Sock-of-the-Month Club

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will remember that my favorite thing to knit is socks.  I am crazy for them!  They are fun, portable, and there are so many different patterns and ways to knit them you could never get bored.  I have been itching to cast on a pair of socks lately.  Especially with my Autumn Haze afghan getting too big to lug around. 

 

Last year in January I had a great idea to match up some of my sock yarn stash with patterns that I wanted to knit.  I could bag them up and they would be ready to go.  My own sock-of-the-month club.  Well, I never got around to actually bagging them up and I think that was my downfall.

 

 

I am getting a late start this year but I am excited about using my stash and knitting some of the patterns I have always wanted to.  I meant to just start by bagging up 6 but I couldn’t stop.  It was just too fun shopping out of my stash!

 

 Anita is going to do it to and we would love anyone else who wants to, to join in!  You can knit the sock pattern we are knitting or another one that you’ve been dying to knit.  Sometimes Anita and I will be working on a different pattern.  It is all about knitting what you want to.

 

We are starting with the Diagonal Lace Socks in the book Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy Johnson.  

I am using this gorgeous Heritage Paints sock yarn by Cascade.  It is red with bits of dark blue in it.  I can’t wait to see it knit up.

Let me know if you want to join in and what sock pattern you are starting with.  This is going to be fun!

5 days

That’s how long it took me to get this quilt finished.  Not bad!  I could have had it done by day 4 but I decided not to push it since I didn’t have to.  So I finished hand stitching the binding this morning.     

 

I free motion quilted it in a stipple pattern and bound it in a fun red plaid.

How much do I love how this quilt turned out?

Enough to share way too many pictures of it with you!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sticking around this week and cheering me on!  It sure was fun but I hope I don’t have to do it again any time soon.  LOL

Pinwheel Baby Quilt

I’m impressed that some of you guessed that I am making Jodi’s adorable Pinwheel Baby Quilt from the Moda Bake Shop.  Quite a few of you have made this quilt before and some more than once.  I must confess it was Des’s version that convinced me that there was just no other quilt that would do.  I literally had to catch my breath when I saw it made up in Dream On by Urban Chiks.  I have wanted some of that fabric since it first came out.  Back to the Pinwheel Baby Quilt…it is a great pattern and so sweet for a baby girl.  What is it about prairie points that takes a quilt to a whole new level of cuteness?

I got the top finished this morning but haven’t had the chance to pin baste it yet.  We had some guys here yesterday and today painting the ceiling over the kitchen, dining room, and living room.  I need to mop the dining room floor before I lay the quilt on it for pin basting.  I am hoping to do that tomorrow.  If things go really well I will have it quilted too. 

I may not even need all six days for this one!

Baby Quilt Update

How can I fail when I have so many friends rooting for me!  Thanks for all your great comments.  The great thing about baby quilts is they are small, so you can work up a quilt top pretty fast.  So here is how I am doing so far. 

I took the above stack of fabric and cut it up into 5” squares and   2 1/2” squares.

 

I cut those 5” squares in half diagonally and paired them with a white triangle of the same size.

 

Gotta love those half square triangles!

 

And when you put those together you get pinwheels!

 

Today I am going to play with some of these…

 

Can you guess the baby quilt I am making?  Hint: It is a free online tutorial.